Twenty-one PW who were HBeAg-negative chronic ASCs with normal ALT levels were enrolled according to the guidelines for the prevention and treatment of chronic hepatitis B (2019 version) (Cui et al., 2022 (link)), and fifteen sex- and age-matched healthy PW without HBV infection and 13 healthy controls (HC) without pregnancy were also recruited at Women’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine (Hangzhou, China) in this study. Individuals were excluded from the study if they had haematological system diseases, infectious diseases, diabetes, autoimmune disease, or other hepatotropic diseases. Chronic HBeAg-negative ASCs with normal ALT levels were also excluded if they accepted HBV treatment within six months before blood sampling, and healthy PW and HC who had a vaccine history within six months were also excluded. Serum levels of 17-β-oestradiol (E2) and progesterone (P4) were detected by chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay (Abbott i4000SR, USA). The demographic and laboratory characteristics of PW with chronic ASCs, healthy PW and HC are shown in Table 1. This study was approved by the Medical Ethical Committee of the Women’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine according to the Declaration of Helsinki (1964).
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